The first step we took together was talking about how to make changes to your diet without traumatizing yourself in the process so it could be a lifestyle change rather than a fad diet you wouldn’t follow more than a week or two.

The second step was how to start a progressive exercise routine that you could see benefits from early on in the comfort of your own home and maintain without a lot of special equipment.

The third step is related to unleashing the power of your mind.

From early on in life we are barraged with information from all sides. Some of this information is good, some bad and all points in between.

Part of the problems we have and deal with on a daily basis may be associated with what someone has told us in the past, maybe repeatedly. This could be things like, “You will never amount to anything” or “You just need to accept things the way they are.” We are sometimes conditioned to think like someone else and get stuck in that mode, especially if coming from a parent, unless we make a conscious effort to change it.

The same thing is true of what information we feed ourselves. If I get up telling myself, this is going to be a bad day, there is a much better chance of that happening. Much of what comes out in our daily lives is related to what we feed in.

Many people have experienced being around a chronic complainer. You know the person I’m talking about, the gloom despair and agony on me person where nothing is quite right, the glass is always half empty, energy level and movements of a sloth with a permanent frown attached.

You probably noticed also that this person has a definite negative effect on the people they are around. It may not be immediate but given a daily dose of this person it starts wearing on everyone. You probably also noticed that if you are around a positive person, always in a good mood, energetic, glass is always half full person, that they tend to have a positive effect on those around them, put them in a better state of mind and get them charged up and more energetic. Why is there such a difference in these two people? Why is one so miserable and the other so happy?

There are many factors that affect us each and every day that we have no control over such as the weather or the neighbor’s dog keeping you up all night. Factors we do have control over is whether we feed ourselves negative thoughts like, “ I’m going to mess up this interview”, then we predispose ourselves for that very thing to happen. If we feed into our minds positive thoughts like, “I’m ready for this interview”, then we are headed the right direction.

Next time I will detail how to acquire and maintain that positive attitude.